Fresh Blood.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE , FRESH BLOOD

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If you were to ask anyone, out of the three siblings; Athena and Dean had the worst arguments. Even the eldest sibling would agree with that.

That was until Dean witnessed Sam and Athena at odds for the first time ever.

While at the motel room; Sam had been talking nonstop about ways and ideas to help Dean out of his deal. He knew that Dean wouldn't have been listening because he genuinely didn't care. But he expected Athena to care. It was getting closer to Dean dying and Athena still was uninterested in helping Dean.

Sam had tried to keep his mouth about it for the past couple of months.

But today he couldn't take it.

Sam had been pacing the room back and forth. Dean was eating his chili fries while Athena's eyes were glued to her book with Gil in her lap.

"Okay, what about a witch—"

"Sam, no." Dean says his mouthful of fries.

Sam sighs, "Dean you're killing me here..." he runs a hand down his face. He sits on the bed and keeps his eyes on the book in front of him. Sam begins to flip through it. "I'm dying here—"

"Sam, don't be so careless with your words." Dean lets out a playful gasp.

"Yeah, I mean...we all know who's the dying one here." Athena clears her throat and points at Dean. "It's him."

"I got that—thanks." Sam's tone was curt. Dean raises his brows, taking notice.

Athena looks back at her book.

"What else am I missing?" Sam whispers. He pinches the bridge of his nose and softly groans.

"Headache?" Dean asks.

Sam looks back at the book, "Yeah, just a little."

"Maybe you shouldn't try so hard." Athena reaches over the table and grabs a fry from Dean. Sam clenches his jaw so hard that he almost breaks his teeth.

"I've had a lot less headaches since I haven't been worrying abo—"

"Maybe, you should try helping once in a while."

Dean freezes mid-eating a fry. Athena closes the book she was reading and chuckles. "It's about damn time, you said something." She turns to him. "For a second, I thought you were gonna bitch out and keep quiet."

"Hey, now, you two—"

"Ever since you've gotten back from staying with Jo, it's like you're a whole different person!" Sam exclaims. "And your lack of worry and love for our brother while he's here for a year worries me."

Athena tilts her head and carelessly bats her eyes. Sam softly scoffs and shakes his head in disbelief. If Athena from 2 years ago were here today, she would've been helping Sam 24/7. And Sam had to be honest, he was missing that version of his little sister, right now.

"I get that you're too afraid to actually express your love for our brother. But you would rather let him die than even say anything?"

Dean's mouth drops open and his food falls out of his mouth.

Athena's amused smirk drops.

"I'm disappointed in you."

Athena keeps her eyes on Sam's, reading his eyes. He truly was disappointed in her. She starts making her own choices and Sam's disappointed in her. This entire time, Athena thought that Sam knew her better than anyone. She thought they could relate to John's abuse, whether it was physical or verbal.

"C-Can we cool it, right now, please?" Dean nervously squeaks.

"I'm not gonna put my whole willpower into trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved." Athena scoffs. "The second that Dean ever confesses he actually doesn't want to go to hell is the day I start finding a way to keep him from dying."

A lump forms in Dean's throat and he forces his very true inner thoughts down so deep that he could've sworn he was going to choke.

Athena squints her eyes at Sam, trying her best to intimidate him. And she was doing a hell of a job. Anytime Athena wanted to attempt to intimidate someone, she tried her best to look intimidating; which would catch the intimidatee off guard. Athena was such a loving person, right? There's no way she would have such a furious look occupying her face. And while they're caught off guard, Athena goes in for a kill.

Hurtful words.

"And I know you're feeling like you can't save people from the lack of people that you've saved recently, but don't throw that shit on me, all right?"

Dean chokes while Sam's jaw clenches.

Athena slams her book shut. She lightly taps her hand on the table. Gil hops off her lap and lands on the floor. Athena stands up and white knuckles her book. "Gil and I are gonna get our stuff together."

"You know to get on the road for our case? To save people? Unless you're head's so far in those goddamn books you forgot what our job actually is." Her tone was low. She walks out the door and slams it shut.

Dean flinches. He then lets out a breath, "Damn..."

He looks at his fries and he gasps. He hadn't realized that he spit out his chewed food onto his uneaten fries. Dean throws his hands in the air, "Dammit!" He then points at Sam. "You owe me new fries."

Sam lets out a deep sigh and hangs his head low.

☆

Sam and Athena were ignoring each other. And Dean wanted to be put out of his misery.

Sooner rather than later.

Luckily, the three were on a vamp case, trying to locate a nest, and the siblings were only focused on finding the location of the nest.

Dean had found one of the vampires and knocked her out with dead man's blood. While she was unconscious, they brought her to their motel and tied her to a chair until she woke up.

Athena would peek into the room that Sam and Dean were in only to see them waiting for the vampire to wake up.

The blonde tied to the chair weakly lifted her head with her eyes fluttering open. She looks around the room, noticing everything was turned upside down. The mattresses were against the wall and the desks were all pushed back. She shifts her eyes to the two men standing in front of her. Athena looks back into the room at the now-conscious blonde and the woman looks at the girl.

"You with us?" Dean's voice booms through the room.

The blonde jumps and tries to lifts her hands up. She looks at her hands that were tied down and her breathing quickens. "Oh, god..."

"Oh, yeah, sorry." Dean clicks his tongue. "You're not going anywhere."

"Where's your nest?"

"What?" The blonde weakly replies.

"Nest--where you and your bloodsucking pals hang out."

The blonde lets out an exhausted breath. "I don't know what you're talking about--please! I don't feel good."

Dean grabs another syringe filled with Dead man's blood. "Yeah, well, you're gonna feel a hell of a lot worse. When we give you another shot of dead man's blood."

Athena pulls her brows together from the shakiness of panic in the woman's voice. She takes a few steps into the room.

"Just let me go." The woman begs.

Sam chuckles, "Yeah, you know we can't do that."

"I'm telling you the truth." The blonde begs.

"I'm just--I took something. I'm freaking out!--I don't know what's going on!"

Athena pulls her brows together, "You took something?"

"Yes!"

The siblings exchange a look.

"I can't...come down. I just want to come down."

"Hey..."

The blonde focuses on the teenager's soft expression. "What's your name?"

"Lucy." The blonde softly speaks. "Please, just let me go."

"All right, Lucy, how about this?" Sam starts. "If you tell us what happened, we'll let you go."

Dean quickly looks over at Sam.

"You will?" Lucy whimpers.

Athena's chest tightens. She looks away from Lucy while Dean nods.

Lucy closes her eyes for a moment, trying to think back. "Uh, I don't really...um, it's not that clear. I was at Spider."

"Spider?"

"The club on Jefferson," Lucy states. "And there was this guy--he was buying me drinks."

"This guy--what's he look like?" Sam asks.

"He was old like 30."

Athena nods, "Ancient."

Sam and Dean pull their brows together.

"He had brown hair, a leather jacket--Deacon or Dixon or something." Lucy continues. "Said he was a dealer--he had something for me."

"Something?"

"Something new," Lucy replies. "Better than anything you've ever tried. He put a few drops in my drink."

Athena's eyes soften, "Was the drug red and thick?"

Dean clicks his tongue, "Well, genius move there."

Athena pulls her brows together and looks at Dean.

"That was vampire blood he dosed you with," Dean states.

"What?"

"Yeah, you just took a big shot of the nastiest virus out there."

"You're crazy!" Lucy snaps at Dean. "He gave me roofies or something!"

"The next thing I know, we're at his place, and he says he's gonna get me something to eat, just wait,"  Lucy explains. "But I get so hungry.

"So you busted out?" Sam asks.

Lucy nods her head. "But it won't wear off...whatever he gave me."

"Lights are too bright?" Dean asks. "Sunshine hurt your skin?"

"Yeah...and smells," Lucy adds. "And I can...hear blood pumping."

"Well, I hate to tell you this, sweetheart, but your blood's never pumping again."

Lucy shakes her head, "Not mine...yours."

Athena slightly tilts her chin up, "So, Dean does have a heart...good to know."

"I can hear a heart beating from half a block away." Lucy whimpers. "I just want it to stop."

Athena felt for Lucy. She had no idea how she became a vampire. The heightened senses definitely didn't help in this scenario either.

"All right, listen, wavy gravy." Dean crouches in front of Lucy. "It's not going to stop. You've already killed two people--almost three."

Lucy lets out a soft cry and shakes her head. "N-No. No, I couldn't. I was hallucinating!"

"You killed them, all right?" Dean tells her. "We've been following a sloppy trail of corpses, and it leads straight to you."

"No...no, it wasn't real! It was the drug!"

Her confusion and denial made Athena's eyes burn with tears.

"Please!--Please, you have to help me!"

The siblings all walk into a separate room and Lucy cries harder.

"Poor girl." Sam softly speaks.

Dean looks at Lucy, with less amount of sympathy across his face. "We don't have a choice." He looks at Sam, asking if he wants to do it. Sam shakes his head. Dean shifts his gaze to Athena, "You might want to--"

Athena walks away from her brothers and from the room, Lucy is in. She pulls open the motel door and slams it shut. Athena lets out an audible breath and places her hands on her knees for support. Even though Lucy was a fully turned vampire, it wasn't fair this was happening to her. She was confused and scared, and now she was going to die.

It made Athena want to cry.

☆

"Oh, you are. Kidding me?!"

The three Winchesters all cower behind a car while Gordon (who I guess is out the clink now—HELLO???) and Kubrick shoot at them. "I should've stayed at the motel, I should've stayed at the motel, I should've stayed at the motel..." Athena repeats under her breath with her hands over her ears.

The glass windows of the car shatter and Athena flinches. "We gotta move!"

Dean grabs Athena's arm and pulls her with him as he follows Sam around the brick wall. Athena keeps her back pressed against the wall with her eyes squeezed shut and her breathing shut. Dean glances at Athena, noticing her having trouble breathing. His eyes soften, he looks around the wall and sees Kubrick and Gordon making their way closer to them. "All right, you two, run. I'll draw them off." Dean speaks.

Athena pulls her brows together and snaps her eyes over to Dean. "No. Don't be an idiot."

"You're crazy?!" Sam snaps.

Dean gives them a warm smile, but there was a look of recklessness in his eyes. He sprints away from them. He jumps on top of the car and runs across it as Kubrick and Gordon shoot at him.

Athena's eyes widen, "No, Dean—"

"We gotta go, Athena!" Sam grabs her hand.

Athena without thinking, rips her hand from Sam and sprints in the direction Dean went. Sam's body went cold, "Athena!"

A bullet whizzes past his head and he flinches. Sam snaps his eyes over to Kubrick, who was stalking towards him. He looks back at where Athena and Dean went, but they weren't in his sight. Sam lets out a breath of relief. As long as they got out safe, he was okay. The middle Winchester sprints over to the car and jumps on top of it. He pushes himself up and climbs over the wall, making it safely into the parking garage.

Athena felt like the biggest idiot in the world. She ran away from Sam to find Dean, only to lose Dean.

Why were her brothers such fast runners?

Athena lets out a heavy breath, as she stops and looks around. It was so quiet, Athena assumed that her brothers got away. Relief courses through her. Even though, she wasn't the happiest with the way Sam has been acting recently, she was still worried about him. As Athena walked down the alley, she couldn't help but think about how worried she was about Dean. Athena tried to create this strong facade that made it seem like she didn't care about Dean dying. But that voice in her head (the good one) has been getting louder recently.

Athena stands at the edge of the alley that lead to the strip of restaurants and motels. She digs her phone out of her jacket pocket and flips it open. Maybe she would start looking into ways to keep Dean from going to Hell when she got back to her room...

Athena scrolls through her contacts. Her eyes land on Sam's name. Sam was for a fact back at the motel, she didn't know if Dean would be though. Athena hadn't been paying attention. She normally would, but for some reason—tonight she hadn't. She would always try to be aware of her surroundings since Victor. Why wasn't she doing it now?

Before Athena could even dial Sam's number, she felt a hand slap over her hand. Athena's entire body felt like one giant alarm. She lets out a muffled scream as she's pulled deeper into the alley. A strong hand grips her wrist and twists it, forcing her to drop her phone. Athena's eyes blur with tears out of fear and she felt like she had forgotten everything. How did she get out of Victor's basement? Athena begins to thrash around and continues to try and scream. What did I do last time?

As that question runs through her mind repeatedly, the man behind her clicks his tongue out of annoyance and slams her head against the wall. Athena's body drops to the floor with a loud thud. Her vision quickly began to blur, but she could see the figure stand over her. That's when Athena remembered...

She didn't get out of Victor's basement. Not until it was too late.

...

Sam had to feed Gil.

He never fed Gil, not unless Athena was sick. But he knew Athena wasn't sick. As a matter of fact, she wasn't anywhere in sight. And neither was Dean. Sam had been checking his watch every 30 seconds, waiting for them. He called Dean and Athena, but neither of them answered. Where the hell did those two go?

The motel door opens and Sam felt his worry slip away. But his worry quickly morphed into anger as Dean entered the room. "There you are!"

"Yeah." Dean closes the door behind him. "Sorry, I stopped for a slice."

"Nice move you pulled back there, Dean—running right at the weapons." Sam's voice was low. Dean takes his jacket off and tosses it on the bed without a care in the world.

"Well, what can I say? I'm a bad-ass." Dean turns to Sam and is greeted with a disappointed expression. Sam pulls his brows together, "So, what, did Athena go to her room?"

Dean blinks, "How am I supposed to know that? She was with you."

Sam's back straightens and his jaw goes slack. Dean could feel his skin run cold from Sam's body language. "Sam..."

"She ran after you—"

"You didn't stop her?!" Dean grabs his phone.

"Were all getting shot at, Dean!" Sam snaps. "Not only that but you two were gone when I looked back—"

"She's not answering her phone." Dean felt his hands begin to shake. "All right, uh—the alley. We have to go back—"

"Gordon and Kubrick are still out there—"

"So?!" Dean barks. "Athena could be still in the alley dying! And that's because we took our eyes off her!"

Sam runs a hand through his hair, "This makes no sense...how did Gordon even know where to find us?"

Dean keeps his eyes on the list of contact names, his eyes then shift to one name. With every second that passed, he felt his anger begin to blind him. He could've sworn he was seeing red. "Fucking bitch..." he presses the thief's name.

She picks up the phone. "Hi, Bela."

Dean could hear her smile through the fucking phone. "Hello, Dean."

"Question for you. When you called me yesterday, it wasn't to thank me for saving your ass, was it?"

Sam's jaw clenches and he lets out a scoff.

"Gordon Walker paid me to tell him where you were," Bela says.

"Excuse me?" Dean growls.

"Well, he had a gun on me. What else was I supposed to do?" Bela giggles.

That fucking giggle. Dean's hand curls into a fist. "I don't know, maybe pick up the phone and tell us that a raging psychopath was dropping by!"

"I did fully intend to call. I just got a bit sidetracked—"

"He tried to kill us!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was such a big deal." Bela shrugs. "After all, there are two and a half of you and one of him."

"There were two of 'em," Dean states.

Bela raises her brows. "Oh. Well...you still got that half—"

"And Athena's missing."

Bela felt like the entire car had gone cold from the way Dean spoke. She could hear the fear he had for his sister, but the anger that was mixed in surpassed it. "I...I didn't think he would—"

"Bela, if we make it out of this alive—and when we get our sister back, the first thing I'm gonna do is kill you."

Bela forces out a chuckle, "You're not serious."

"Listen to my voice and tell me if I'm serious."

Bela's stomach violently turns and her smile drops. Dean ends the call abruptly, which forces Bela's mind to begin to race. Dean looks at Sam, "We're going back." He grabs his jacket and stalks over to the motel door.

Sam immediately follows after him, not a second thought. The brothers may have disagreed on many things over the past years. But one thing they could agree on is, that they weren't going to rest until they found Athena—alive.

☆

When Athena first woke up, she could've sworn she was having a nightmare. It was a nightmare that felt all too familiar. The dimly lit room made it hard for her to see anything. But the humidity in the room made it hard to breathe, she could feel it in her throat. Her back was pressed tight enough against the wire box spring that the girl knew she was going to have bruises later. Athena could feel it in her heart that she was back in that basement.

She was in Victor's basement.

"No, no, no..." Athena chokes out. She squints her eyes from the fluorescent lights shining from the building next to them. Athena's chest tightens and she attempts to pull her wrists up, but they are tied down by ropes. "Shit—no, I can't—let me out!" She cries, tears brimming her eyes.

Athena's head began to feel light and she couldn't breathe. "I can't get out, I can't—let me go, please!"

Athena's body was trembling and her ears were ringing to the point she couldn't even hear that Gordon was calling her name.

"ATHENA"

The girl flinches and almost like a snap of twig, her vision unblurs. She inhales a breath, trying to catch her breath. Her eyes travel around the area and she notices that she isn't in Victor's basement. She was in a small apartment. Athena takes a moment to control her breathing. "What the fuck?"

"You've gotta calm down."

Athena pulls her brows together from the voice. "God?"

"Gordon."

Athena's chest tightens. "Oh, give me a fucking break..." She looks around and spots the two blondes hanging by their wrists. "Holy. Shit. Are they dead?"

"No, they're alive."

Footsteps are heard getting closer and Athena's body tenses. She looks around and sees the man walking over to the two girls. "I know you're comfortable..." he holds a jar of blood out to one of the girls and she drinks out of it. "But this is just temporary."

"The hunger will pass, and then you'll feel much better."

He walks over to the other girl and feeds her blood. "You're both awake."

"Who are they?" Gordon asks.

"Family."

"You always keep your family in shackles?"

Athena raises her brows, "You'd be surprised how awful family can be."

"We're still getting to know each other." The vampire turns to Gordon and Athena. "They've just been reborn."

"You grabbed these girls off the street," Athena states. "You took them away from their actual family."

"You made them monsters like you," Gordon speaks.

Athena slightly opens her mouth. "Okay, let's not agitate him now. We're trying to get out of this."

"I do what I have to," Dixon says. "We're a dying breed."

He looks between the two. "And you two know that, don't you..."

Athena shakes her head, "N-No. I mean, I don't know that." she nervously chuckles. "I'm a helpless 13-year-old, how could I possibly--"

"Athena Winchester?" Dixon says her name as if he was reminding her who she was. Athena looks to the side, "Shit, I forgot you knew my name."

"How could I not? You and your brothers are famous."

Athena huffs, "Right..." she looks at the ceiling. How could she forget that she was famous in the hunting world?

"And you Gordon Walker..." Dixon walks over to the man tied to another box spring. "One of the greatest living vampire hunters."

"In the flesh," Gordon says, his hard eyes not daring to look away from the Vampire.

"You're a big part of why my people are nearly extinct." Dixon sat in a chair that was near Gordon.

Gordon softly scoffs already exhausted by this conversation. "Your "people" are going extinct because you're a bunch of mindless, bloodthirsty animals."

Athena softly whines, "Oh my god...I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die with Gordon Walker...I have so many regrets."

"Right." Dixon chuckles at Gordon's statement, not paying any mind to the girl. "We're so much more bloodthirsty than you. Hunters slaughtered my entire nest like they were having a party--murdered my daughter,"

"Not taking Gil on a walk with a leash..." Athena shakes her head.

Dixon picks up the picture from the table and shows it to Gordon. "I can't tell you how satisfying this is--catching a hunter responsible for so many deaths and making your lunch for my new daughters."

"Not trying dragon fruit." Athena exhales. "Pop Tarts...I've only had the strawberry ones--god, I'm so boring." she lays her head against the box spring.

"Daughters?" Gordon scoffs. "Try fang whores."

Athena quietly whines.

"Watch your mouth." Dixon snaps.

"Yes, please watch your mouth--please." Athena seethes.

It was almost like Athena was chopped liver because Gordon and Dixon just continued their conversation without acknowledging her. "Oh, did I hurt your feelings? I'm sorry. I forgot you're just a misunderstood victim...even though you murder and spread your filthy disease on pure base instinct."

Dixon softly chuckles.

"You got less humanity than a were rat."

"I'm sorry you have such a low opinion of my people." Dixon softly speaks.

Gordon shakes his head, "Oh, you have no idea."

Dixon stares at Gordon for a moment, a twisted idea forming. "Sorry, change of plans." he looks back at the two girls. "I'll be going out to get your lunch."

Dixon pulls a knife from his pocket and looks back at Gordon. "I've got a better idea for you." he grips Gordon's arm and cuts him. Athena's mouth opens realizing what the vampire was trying to do.

"Oh, shit--wait." Athena quickly speaks. If Gordon was a vampire, he'd have a whole 'nother advantage against the Winchesters.

Dixon cuts his own arm and Athena tugs at her restraints. "Dixon, don't do this!"

"N-No..." Gordon tries to pull away despite his restraints stopping him.

Dixon places his bleeding wound against Gordon's and the vampire hunter screams.

Athena lets out a small breath, "Well...shit."

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author's note.
Sterling K. Brown has me in such a chokehold oml I love him.

words : 4275